The Best for Last
by a.little.jem
Summary: Spoilers for 7x10, Death's Door. This is a tag to the end of the episode. Just a couple of moments exploring the decision that needed to be made.


**So after watching last nights episode, I felt that I had to write this story. It's not that original or really much different then what the show gave us, but I needed to have a couple of moments more if it's really the end of a great character. **

**Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this. If you have anything to say, I would love to hear what you think in a review or message. **

**I hope you enjoy reading it. **

**I do not own Supernatural.**

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><p>Bobby stood quite literally staring his death in the face, but he no longer felt afraid. He had made it through, gotten back to the boys and given them the information that they needed to stop the big blue ball from bouncing off the court.<p>

"They'll be okay without you"

The words came with a surprising gentleness.

Bobby turned them over in his head. The reaper was trying to do what he thought was best for Bobby but he wondered if the boys would really be okay?

They would have each other and last year Bobby would have said that that was all that they had needed, but now... Now he finally saw how much they had come to rely on him and not simply for hunting but as a member of their family. One of the only members left.

Could he leave them? Could he move on for his own benefit?

He looked over his shoulder towards the living room where the last memory of his boys waited.

"Last memory, huh?" Bobby said and watched as the reaper nodded. Bobby mirrored the motion and a small smile crept into place. You would think that this sort of decision would be painfully hard to make, but standing their in his last island it was simple.

"Glad I saved the best for last." With that he moved into the other room, towards his most prized possession.

Sam and Dean were sitting on the coach, grumbling to each other, arguing about snacks and if Chuck Norris could beat Jet Li in a fight. To anyone else, this memory would seem unimportant or unremarkable. To Bobby it was a rare moment when the brothers were able to put all the pain and responsibility to rest.

There they were, his boys, simply being themselves, enjoying a moment together. They were safe, they were whole and despite the bickering, they were happy.

All he could do was smile though his heart wrenched at the thought of not spending another evening like this. It was so simple. It was so normal.

It was perfect.

Tears sprang to his eyes as he watched the last memory he had, the memory of his family being safe disappeared. The well loved voices drifting away, wind through his fingers. Until there was nothing left but him and his death.

"Well Bobby, stay or go? What's it gonna be?" The reaper watched him with that steady gaze, a golden pocket watch ticking the last seconds away. The sound growing and filling him as the decision bore down on him.

He knew what decision to make.

The moment it had formed in his mind the world around him crumbled away.

Bobby found himself standing in the cool sterile interior of a hospital. People bustled around him, unaware of the invisible presence in their midst, but he had eyes only for two figures. Before him stood the two most important people left in his life.

Sam and Dean stared straight ahead panic and pain playing equal parts across their faces. Bobby knew what he would see if he turned around. The last moments of his body's fight, doctors and nurses trying in vain to bring him back from the inevitable.

Yet that didn't seem to matter anymore. What mattered was who he was about to leave behind and the lost looks that brought back images of young innocent faces from years past.

Dean stared as if he could hold him to Bobby's life by his will alone. The tears that were shinning in his eyes, showed the older man how close to the edge the young hunter actually was. Bobby wanted nothing more then to pull him into his arms and hold Dean together before he fell apart.

He turned his attention to Sam. He stood, stooped over slightly, a childlike look of fear and loss making the giant man seem so much younger then he was. He pressed the palm of his left hand, closing his eyes to the awful sight ahead of him.

Bobby's brows furrowed in confusion at the action. It was Sam's life line when images of hell overwhelmed him. Suddenly Bobby saw how close he was to killing his boys by the act of leaving.

_They'll be okay without you, _he thought bitterly. Here they were crumbling apart as one by one everything that they ever held dear was ripped away from them.

All they had left was each other.

Bobby watched as the brothers stood side by side, but so far away. They were like two separate islands, each trying to over come the panic and hold their hearts together on their own.

_Idjits!_ Bobby yelled at his boys, though his voice did not reach them. He moved forward and placed a hand on Dean's shoulder and one on Sam's interlocked hands.

_Stop trying to do everything yourself. It's okay to need someone, every once in a while. _He stared at the two beloved faces, almost wishing that their wet eyes would look back into his one last time. _It's okay to need each other. _

They remained there for a moment. Bobby willing them to understand and they drowning in the white void of the hospital hallway and the long single note that was screeching through the air.

Then slowly Dean blinked and a look of confusion washed over his face. He turned and looked over his shoulder to his little brother. Sam's head was still bowed over his hands, gripping his scar with all his might. The pressure ripping the healed skin apart, but he showed no sign of awareness of this.

Dean studied his brother for a moment, his expression sliding into a deep sadness and leaving some of the hysteria behind.

Slowly Dean lifted his hand and covered both of Sam's, right over Bobby's own spectral one.

"Sammy?" He said in almost a whisper, his voice breaking slightly. "Sammy, it will be okay. Focus on me. I'm here."

Sam lifted his head to look at Dean, blinking in surprise when he saw the tears caught in his older brother's green eyes. Neither brother seemed to believe Dean's words, that it would be okay, but both gripped onto the hope.

Dean pulled Sam's hands apart and Sam let them drop to his side.

The brothers watched each other, both despairing at the sight of their loved one slipping away, but trying to focus on what was still left.

Dean placed his hand on his brother's shoulder and Sam reacted by holding onto his shirt selves with a white knuckle grip.

Bobby watched silently tears tracking down his cheeks. It wasn't perfect but it would work. As long as the idjits didn't forget to hold onto what they did have, then they would somehow make it through.

He felt a presence over his shoulder and for the first time the reaper did not bring a sense of dread to the hunter. He felt a soft pressure against his back as the reaper placed his hand their.

A silent question, which needed no answer other then a simple nod. With that Bobby Singer felt the world fade away until he saw only one thing. The Winchester boys, his boys holding each other together.

Then he saw no more.

spnspnspnspn

Bobby Singer was many things to many people. A husband, a drunk, a junker, a mechanic, a partner, a hunter, a friend, a mentor and an old coot.

Yet most of the people who thought so are either dead now, or never really took the time to know him in the first place.

No, Bobby Singer will be remembered differently by the two most important people left in his life.

As a father.

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><p>Thank you for reading. I hope that you enjoyed it.<p>

Jem.


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